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Iodine-131 Update 5

14 April 2011

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has an ongoing comprehensive monitoring programme for radioactivity in Scotland, and has increased the level of scrutiny to provide ongoing public assurance.

The latest set of samples, which each cover 29 March – 12 April have consisted of:

15 air samples;

two rainwater samples;

five surface water samples.

No iodine-131 has been detected in surface water samples. Air monitors continue to show very low levels of this isotope. The concentrations are of no concern to human health and all results reported to date are below the levels where regulatory control is necessary.

SEPA will continue to monitor the environment and will provide the information to the Scottish Government and the public.

The monitoring data is available on the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) website and will be updated weekly.

Ends

Notes to editors

Air filter samples are changed every seven days, but not all locations are changed at the same time, and the time taken to analyse them can vary due to geographical distance from the laboratory. This means that updates may include data from previous weeks.

SEPA has also been provided with monitoring data from nuclear site operators and research institutions own sampling programmes. Data is comparable with that of SEPA's monitoring, however is not included in the HPA weekly update.